The Hindu

Mitra Milan culminates in Ugadi fete at ashram The Hindu Ugadi was celebrated in a traditional manner, including a havan, at Kala Ashram here on Wednesday. The participants of the three day Mitra Milan programme here got to taste the Ugadi pachhadi and other aspects of the Telugu New Year celebration.

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Mitra Milan culminates in Ugadi fete at ashram - The Hindu

Bhatkallys News Service

Bhatkal 28 March 2017: A student of Anand Ashram Convent School Bhatkal today succumbed to the injuries which he sustained a day before, due an explosion caused by the gas leakage from an Geyser at his house.

The victim has been identified as Mranal Shetty, an class 10th student of Anand Ashram School. Mranal was admitted in an private hospital in Mangalore where he breathed his last today morning.

Sources close to the family reported that Mranal, yesterday was trying to switch on the Geyser at his home, and after several unsuccessful attempt he complained his parents about the Geyser not switching on. By the time his parents came in to try their hands to switch the Geyser on, it had already leaked enough gas to explode and injured all three of them.

All three injured were rushed to Mangalore hospital, where Mranal eventually succumbed to his injuries.

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Bhatkal: Geyser Explosion killed an Grade 10th Student of Anand Ashram School - Bhatkallys

The Hindu

All set for Mitra Milan at Kala Ashram The Hindu The three-day annual Ugadi Mitra Milan is all set to start on Monday at Kala Ashram as participants have started arriving from all corners of the country. The Mitra Milan is a platform for informal discussions between experts in the fields of ...

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All set for Mitra Milan at Kala Ashram - The Hindu

Dhenkanal: The yearly grand festival of Sri Guru Anant Ashram Jatiya Sarbodaya Samiti was celebrated with great pleasure & merry making at its State head office Banasing, 22 km from Dhenkanal town. In this great occasion, thousands of devotees from hundreds of Branch ashrams in all the districts of the state took part.

Yesterday at 4 PM all the devotees organize a grand spiritual procession through the nearby villages against untouchable disease of the society.

Then, at 7 PM, Pancharangi Pataka Uttolan was done followed by Brahma Jagnya, which has been organized each year on MAGHA MASA SUKLA PAKHYA BARAH DWADASI for World Peace ( Biswa Santi ).

At 10 pm, a General Body meeting followed by Elections for State Committee was conducted by the State Chief Advisor Er. Debashisha Hota.

Sri Basant Pattayat of Cuttack Adaspur Ashram became State President, Sri Bijay Mohapatra of Khordha BhagabatiPatana Balugan became State Secretary and Sri Kamakhya Prasad Hota of Dhenkanal Parikheda became State Treasurer.

51 Member State Executive Body Elected for 3 years Comprising All Regions of the State. They are namely, Samant Ghanashyam Das, Ramachandra Maharana, Dr. Maheswar Swain, Govind Chandra Mallick, Jaladhar Rout, Muralidhar Sahu, Bhikari Charan Behera, Kartik Jena, Madhav Bala, Pramod Kumar Sahoo, Nilamani Behera, Nilamani Kabi, Pitambar Jena, Dillip Samal, Chaitanya Rout, Chakradhar Sandha, Gobardhan Parida, Sudhakar Sahu, Prabhakar Pradhan, Bhagaban Rout, Swarnaprava Parida, Nrupati Behera, Sandhyarani Behera, Kukuni Pradhan, Bilasi Pradhan, Amari Dehury, Kabita Dehury, Arun Mallick, Udhhab Sahoo, Murali Naik, Paramananda Sahoo, Dambarudhar Bhoi, Smt. Basanti Sahoo, Sachhidananda Nayak, Duryodhan Naik, Ramachandra Bhoi, Harischandra Mallick, Bhramar Behera, Nabakishore Behera, Dhaneswar Rout, Pramod Naik, Dambarudhar Naik, Mathura Naik, Surath Naik, Pramodini Didi, Benudhar Naik, Rabi Naik, Bharat Dehury, Joginath Naik, Ranjan Lenka, Duryodhan Naik and Basant Naik.

Its here noteworthy that, the Great Sadguru Satyabadi Satapathy of Banasing inspired by Sarboday movement of Gandhijee spread One Letter Almighty Principle (ANAKHYARA MATABADA) in all over the state of Odisha having 75 thousand disciples with 220 ashrams. He also tried to eradicate the untouchable disease of the society. For this act of Him, He faced many problems in His personal & spiritual life by the then kings & leaders of the society.

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Yearly Grand Fest of Anant Ashram Celebrated at Banasingh - Odisha Diary

If you visit the temple village of Kavlem, near Ponda it is easy to miss the Balika Kalyan Ashram, the girls orphanage ensconced in one of its by lanes. However, this small and compact building is home to 60 orphan and destitute girls who are being looked after with much love and care.

Started in 1976 by the Ponda based Matruchaya Trust, the ashram has flowered into a wonderful home for girls. At this moment, there are seven girls in the 0-4 age category, with most being eligible for adoption under the Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) guidelines. A maximum number of 50 girls are in the class V-X category, eight girls will appear for the SSC examinations very soon, while two girls have just completed their HSSC examinations. Two older girls are pursuing their undergraduate studies in the arts and commerce streams respectively.

Walking with Mandakini Patil, the jovial superintendent through the ashram, one realizes how neat and clean the surroundings are. The 60 girls have been formed into six teams of ten girls each. Each team has a team leader. The girls have been taught to sweep and swab the floor and maintain cleanliness in their respective staying quarters, the ashram lobbies and staircases. The girls wash their own clothes and utensils too. We believe in making the girls completely self-reliant. It is good training for their adult life, Patil said.

The little girls are being trained in Indian customs and tradition too. It was refreshing to see a girl greet you with a namaste after serving you tea. A regular day at the ashram begins at 5am. The girls have an exercise and pranayama class between 6am-6:30am, followed by their daily cleaning schedule between 6:30am-7am and breakfast between 7am-7:30am followed by school. The post-school lunch is between 2pm-2:30pm followed by tuitions and play time. Every Wednesday sees a team of lady doctors visit the ashram to check on the health of the girls. According to Patil, the Ponda district hospital is their port of call for medical emergencies.

A team of teachers visits the ashram every afternoon to tutor the girls in the various school subjects. It was also heartening to see a special computer room in the ashram where two teachers teach the girls computer skills. IT teacher Sneha Sawant said, We teach the girls MS Office and many of the girls have become proficient in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint operations. The girls are very sharp and intelligent.

There is also an emphasis on sport and extra-curricular activities at the ashram. The girls are taught classical Indian music and have also been introduced to the pakhwaj, the ancient Indian percussion instrument. Chess is the number one sport at the ashram with many of the girls regularly representing their school in local chess tournaments. Regular classes are held for tailoring, fabric painting and knitting. The girls are also adept at rangolli art and some of the exhibits made by the girls are breathtakingly beautiful.

Interestingly, the children are not allowed to watch television except on the weekend, so that the focus remains on studies and sport. In a state like Goa, where garbage management is a serious challenge, it is good to know that the ashram composts their wet garbage every day and gives their dry garbage to the Kavlem Panchayat on a regular basis.

Our girls manage the wet composting unit thereby learning important environmental lessons early in life, Patil said.

Every attempt has also been made to make the ashram very homely. According to Nilima Kamat, honorary secretary, Matruchaya Trust, the children are encouraged to address all their care-givers as Tai (Sister) and Dada (Brother), so that the feeling of family is uppermost on their minds.

Typically, the ashram educates the girls up to college and helps get them married to eligible boys. A marriage of one of our girls is a very happy moment for all of us. Many of the girls continue visiting the ashram with their own children. They treat the ashram like a Maher-ghar (mothers home). Patil said.

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Matruchaya's Balika Kalyan Ashram is a boon for girls! - Oherald

His politics is exclusively fire and brimstone variety. But Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has a softer side too.

The 44-year-old monk is also an animal lover. And his compassion for animals goes beyond cows of which he has around 500 in a cow shelter in the Gorakhnath temple where he is also the head priest.

While his daily schedule has changed following his appointment as chief minister, Adityanath had a gruelling time table as head priest in Gorakhpur.

He (Adityanath) gets up at 3 am. After yoga and daily prayers, he feeds the cows at his gaushala. He takes his breakfast only after feeding the cows, said a close associate.

The gaushala is set up across two acres of land on the temple premises. Several volunteers every day tend to the 500-plus cows at the shelter.

Yogiji likes my dedication towards the service of cows, including Nandini, his favourite one. Yogiji doesnt take his breakfast till he himself feeds the cows, Man Mohamed, the only Muslim volunteer at the shelter told HT.

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While Adityanaths love for cows is well known, he is also a pet lover and has a number of animals on the Gorakhnath temple premises, including a dog, a cat, a deer and some monkeys.

His dog named Kallu roams the temple premises all day. When Adityanath is in Gorakhpur, he spends time with Kallu after completing his daily chores and political meetings.

In the morning, he also feeds the monkeys which have made the temple their home.

Recently a photo of Yogi feeding milk to a tiger cub went viral on social media.

His aides in the Gorakhnath temple said the cub was found roaming near an ashram in Tulsipur, in Balrampur district near the India-Nepal border, about 150 km from Gorakhpur. The cub was kept in the ashram for a few months and later handed over to the forest department for rehabilitation. Adityanath used to feed the cub with a milk bottle whenever he visited the ashram, they said.

He used to also feed the deer and antelopes that roamed around the ashram near Tuthibari in Maharajganj district, 100 km from Gorakhpur. The ashram is sandwiched between Sohagibarwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharajganj and Chitwan National Park in Nepal.

Adityanath feeds cows at the gaushala in Gorakhpur. (HTFile Photo)

The Gorakhnath Temple Trust has also set up an ashram in Nawal Parasi district across the border in Nepal which Aditya Nath sometimes visits.

In the late 1990s, a young Adityanath had galvanized Tharu and Vantongiyas tribals, settled in the bordering districts of Balrampur, Lakhimpur, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj to launch a movement against poachers in the forest areas of Nepal and UP.

His love for trees has turned the Gorakhnath temple into an oasis in a concrete jungle. His supporters call him a green saint who has planted a number of saplings of peepal, mango, banyan and Ashoka around the residential complex located on the temple premises.

Adityanath is also said to have planted a number of aromatic and medicinal plants in an area between the temple and the cow shelter.

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UP chief minister Adityanath: A Hindutva leader, 'green' saint and animal lover - Hindustan Times

Tribal girl found dead in State-run Ashram school The Hindu The body of a nine-year-old tribal girl, a student of a State-run primary Ashram school in Odisha's Kandhamal district, was found hanging in a hostel room, the police said on Friday. The victim was a student of Class III of the school at Belpadar, run ...

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Tribal girl found dead in State-run Ashram school - The Hindu

Body of a nine-year-old tribal girl, a student of a state-run primary Ashram school in Odisha's Kandhamal district was found hanging in a hostel room, police said today.

The victim was a student of class three of the school at Belpadar, run by Tribal and Rural Development department of the state.

The girl died under mysterious circumstances as she allegedly hanged herself by using a bedsheet, said Ganeswar Bharimala, the District Welfare Officer (DWO), Kandhamal.

The victim was identified as Tulasha Kanhar, a tribal girl, who had appeared for her drawing examination earlier in the morning.

The girl was taken to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) at Phulbani where doctors decalred her brought dead.

Sarojini Swain her class teacher said, "There was no apparent reason on her part to take such an extreme step. We are surprised."

The girl's father, this afternoon, lodged an FIR with the Phulbani Sadar police station alleging murder of his daughter and demanded an impartial investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Tribal girl found dead in state-run primary Ashram school - Business Standard

40 minutes ago.

For many Indians even today, the Northeastern states of the country and its people are in the limelight most of the time for the wrong reasons. Be it news of violence, floods, insurgency and road blocks, the collective imagery of this part of our country in the national consciousness is still a region that is not just geographically remote but mentally alien.

The story of Natwarbhai Thakkar of Nagaland is refreshingly different. Thakkar came to Nagaland in 1955 to promote national and emotional integration through voluntary service on Gandhian principles and to conduct activities for all-round development of the people of Nagaland and Northeast India.

A Gujarati by birth, he chose to move from his hometown of Dahanu Road in Maharashtra in western India to Nagaland, inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhis thoughts imbibed during the freedom movement and further mentored by late Kaka Kalelkar, freedom fighter and social reformer.

Since then, his efforts, along with those of his wife Lentina, an Ao Naga, and many volunteers and staff of Nagaland Gandhi Ashram are directed at peace-building efforts at the frontier in spite of all the odds.

When he arrived in 1955, the road from Amguri in Assam foothills into the mountains of Nagaland was just about 80 km but it too many hours to reach the Chuchuyimlang village due to the difficult terrain. Chuchuyimlang then had houses with thatched roofs. Over the years, these made way to houses with tinned sheets and later into concrete structures. Communication facilities were a distant dream as not even a post office existed then nor a telephone link with the outside world. Electricity was a luxury.

In his first week in the village, he saved a child who needed medical attention and care. Slowly and steadily, responding to the needs of the community, a number of development initiatives were pioneered by the Gandhi Ashram established by him. These included weaving, vocational education, primary education, a library, youth activities, livelihood training and so on. Some activities flourished while others did not. The government, taking a cue from the Ashram, started a number of initiatives serving the very purpose of pilot efforts undertaken by the Ashram.

However, the journey was treacherous and Natwarbhai faced many challenges. Those who did not believe in national integration did not see Ashram activities sympathetically. In early years of his coming to Nagaland, his house was attacked at night by forces hostile to his efforts in peace building. He and his family had a narrow escape. The government often found his work irksome as he took a principled stand against any injustice and unfair practices causing harm to the Naga community.

But Natwarbhai persisted and remained steadfast like a true karmayogi. As his work expanded and found acceptance amongst the community, Natwarbhai became a part of the local community. Visitors and dignitaries blessed his work and stood behind his efforts in solidarity. Awards, recognitions, and fame came his way, but it did not affect him personally. He remains to be the same humble person with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

After 1990, when the computer education movement began to roll out all over the country, not to be left behind, Nagaland Gandhi Ashram was the probably the first NGO to establish a center in Chuchuyimlang village with the help of Ministry of Communications of the Government of India.

The Ashram recently tied up with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and is offering a postgraduate program in Human Development. The government has allocated land in the village and hopefully, a fully residential campus will come up in the coming years. As he says, That will be a farewell gift to me.

Natwarbhai is a living memoir and encyclopedia of the Northeast and especially Nagaland, the 16th state that was born in December 1963. I first met him in his Ashram in August 1987 when I was working as a volunteer with Jnana Prabodhini, a Pune-based NGO working in the field of education and national integration. I then lost contact with him and then got an opportunity to meet him almost after thirty years in November 2016.

When I had first met him, he had spoken of cultivating a sense of healthy curiosity. Those words stayed with me even now. Natwarbhai had continued on this journey of nurturing a healthy curiosity amidst changes that sometimes overpower the village life in remote regions. Natwarbhai at his young age of 85 is an active facebook user. Thanks to the facebook, I could reconnect with him.

During my visit, we talked about many things but I wanted to hear from him on what has changed and not changed in Nagaland in these 50 years. His observations are poignant.

At that time, there was not a single educated person in Chuchuyimlang village, he said. Now we can count a few IAS officers, teachers, government servants, and lawyers. There was neither a post office nor a telephone facility. Now the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram runs a computer center with over 60 computers offering several short and long duration courses for Naga youths.

Natwarbhai said he had observed several positive changes. We have now three local newspapers published from the state. There is a lot of debate on issues affecting the Naga society. I see a small beginning of the emergence of civil society. In our neighbourhood, someone recently started an orphanage. There is an active debate on issues impacting Naga society.

However, he is quick to point out that what is sorely missing is the moral foundation of the society. There has been a great erosion all around in our society. That to him is a worrisome trend.

On his long innings to build bridges between the Naga society and rest of the country, Natwarbhai is more circumspect in his reply. For me, it has been a long and sometimes tiring effort as also frustrating experience to build bridges among Nagas and citizens in other parts of the country, he said. I think that this connect is still very weak. It will take a long time to build strong linkages. But I am ever optimistic.

He added, There was an incident in the Raj Bhavan in Kohima where some miscreant removed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. While this incident happened, around the same time, in my village Chuchuyimlang, the village council decided to felicitate me and honoured me with an award for lifetime achievement for community service. I am the only non-Naga to have received this honor.

What is that energy that continues to motivate him against all odds? He is modest in sharing, When I left for Nagaland, my mentor Kaka Kalelkar had advised me that you might believe or you may not believe. But try to continue to offer prayer at least every day as you get immersed in work. Thankfully, I have not missed my prayers all these years with only a few exceptions. The prayer is the Universal prayer that is sung in every Gandhi Ashram. OM tat sat sri narayan to purushottam guru tu.

As I returned to my workplace after a weeklong travel to the northeastern state, I continued to hum the universal prayer of peace that Natwarbhai and his fellow workers in the Ashram sang year after year, every single day, for spreading peace and promoting wellbeing, literally at the frontier. The Gandhi Ashram in Chuchuyimlang is the peace post at the frontier manned by a Gandhian volunteer almost single-handedly for the last 50 plus years.

Ajit Kanitkar is a Consultant for Tata Education and Development Trust and a Member of the research team at Centre for Development and Research in Pune. Prior to this, he was Programme Officer at Ford Foundation, India office, and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, both in New Delhi. He taught at Institute of Rural Management, Anand, during 1992-1995.

This article first appeared on Village Square.

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A Gujarati man has spend 50 years advocating peace and Gandhian principles in Nagaland - Scroll.in

New Year, New Beginnings Hari Aum,

We hope that everyone has enjoyed a relaxing holiday season and some time in the sun now that the New Zealand summer has begun. New Year is often a time of new beginnings, we've welcomed 2017 with the re-launch of our Parnell studio and laid the foundations for many exciting things to come as we journey through the year. What new beginnings or intentions have you set out for yourself? What seeds of intention have you planted?

On February 1 we re-opened out doors of our new collaborative space that we share with fellow yogi's at Yogatech. We are super excited to plant our hands and feet back on the mat and it's been wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces. If you haven't been to visit our new studio join us this weekend 11-12 February for EXPLORE Yoga, a medley of classes from both studios. Or pop in for one of our regular weekly classes.

Coming Up in February & MarchWe've a whole host of exciting workshops and masterclasses happening in Auckland and some re-invigorating retreats taking place in Ohui. Scroll down to see what we've got in store. Level 1 Teacher Training Intensive has also kicked off in Ohui this month, with our Part-Time Teacher Trainings soon to follow. Want to know more about becoming a teacher or taking a teacher training to deepen your practice? Come to our TTC Intro where we'll give you a taster and answer all your burning questions.

Sannyas is being initiated into the process of developing freedom of mind, recognising the means to develop this through renunciation. For many people renunciation means to not have lots of acquisitions and attachments to these acquisitions. But sannyasin is not limited to the physical realm of attachment, so rather than working exclusively on this level it's within the mind where we free ourselves from attachments. There is nothing wrong with spiritual aspirants being fully involved in worldly life, but still be aware of their possessiveness and attachment to whatever and to be quietly working away towards realising their essential nature. Read more

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Ashram Yoga | Bringing People Together - Home